Christopher Tidmore is on the radio from 4-6 PM on 1190 AM in New Orleans and 4-5 PM on 1590 AM in Baton Rouge.   Online at www.kkay1590.com.  Call in your comments to this article this afternoon after 4 PM at 504-483-1761.

            In a breaking story, Bayoubuzz.com and The Louisiana Weekly have learned that a Campaign has begun to draft former Fifth District Congressman Dr. John Cooksey to run in the GOP primary against David Vitter in 2010.

            Moreover, sources close to the Monroe Ophthalmologist say that the retired member of Congress is very interested.  So interested, in fact, that he is willing to commit a sizable portion of his personal savings to a campaign against the incumbent Republican Senator.  

“John is willing to put up $200,000 of his own money to take on Vitter.  He only wants to know that there is public support for a run,” said a senior advisor to the former Congressman—who asked not to be named.

            Friends of Cooksey are reportedly in the nescient stages of forming a “Draft Congressman Cooksey” organization that already has a telephone number.   The politically interested, particularly Republicans, are being encouraged to dial (504) 552-9273, and--if they so desire--express their willingness to support Cooksey in primary challenge against David Vitter.

            Sources close the congressman say that he is ready to take on the incumbent, but only if sufficient Republican support truly exists for a primary challenge

            While there has been a campaign to draft Porn Star and Baton Rouge native Stormy Daniels into the GOP primary, Cooksey is the first prominent Republican to seriously entertain a run.

First elected to Congress in 1996, the Monroe Ophthalmologist represented Louisiana's Fifth District for three terms, keeping a term limits pledge that he made on the outset of his first election.   

While popular with the social conservatives in his District, Cooksey, an opponent of abortion as a congressman, refused to support efforts to address the issue through a constitutional amendment. He said that the nation already had too many "federal bureaucrats" making and interpreting policy, and he distrusted the use of constitutional amendments to address most public policies.

Going into the 2002 U.S. Senate race against Mary Landrieu, Cooksey was, at the on-set, the favored candidate.   In the aftermath of September 11^th, though, the Congressman appeared on the statewide radio program “Louisiana Live” and made an off-color comment that U.S. policy should not be determined by radical interests, specifically that comparing turbans worn by terrorists to diapers attached with fan belts.

Cooksey repeatedly said that he was not speaking of Arabs or Muslims in general, only of radical Islamists.  He apologized for the gaffe multiple times, but the Bush Administration encouraged Republican State Elections Commissioner Suzie Terrell to run against Cooksey and Landrieu in the open primary.   Then-State Representative Tony Perkins challenged as well, dividing the final vote.

Terrell emerged in a December runoff with Landrieu and lost by a narrow 45,000 votes. 

            Cooksey has long argued that he would have performed better than Terrell in a General Election, driving Conservative vote in his native North Louisiana in ways that a Moderate Republican from Uptown New Orleans could not have. 

            Retired from politics since 2002, Cooksey took up his medical practice once more, but stayed active in local politics and retained many of his contacts. 

            Were Cooksey to enter the race, other Republicans might follow.   His former opponent in 2002, Tony Perkins has since ascended to the highest echelons of the Social Conservative movement, heading the Family Research Council.  However, Perkins has very seriously entertained a Senate run as well, pushing David Vitter to spend time in recent months shoring up his position on the right.

            Perkins has been hesitant to stand against Vitter alone, but the presence of another credible candidate might prove sufficient encouragement for him to make a Senate race--as it did in 2002.    

            Cooksey has refused to publicly comment on the draft campaign, other than a blanket refusal to rule any opportunity out.  

Christopher Tidmore hosts the Political Roundtable on Gulf Coast Today from 4-6 PM on 1590 AM in Baton Rouge and 1190 AM in New Orleans.   Online at www.kkay1590.com.  Call in your comments to this article this afternoon after 4 PM at 504-483-1761.